Abstract:
The continuous degradation of the environment caused by the increasing presence of organic and inorganic pollutants has led to growing interest in developing environmentally friendly and health-conscious remediation solutions. In this context, deep eutectic solvents (DES) have emerged as a promising green alternative to conventional organic solvents, due to their low toxicity, biodegradability, ease of preparation, and tunable properties depending on the nature of the target compounds.
This work focused on the evaluation of two DES systems — menthol–thymol and menthol–dodecanoic acid — for the liquid–liquid extraction of two model pollutants: formic acid (an organic pollutant) and copper (II) ions (an inorganic pollutant). The experimental results showed significant extraction efficiencies, reaching up to 95% for formic acid and 80% for copper, depending on the operating conditions. These performances are closely related to the physicochemical properties of the solvents, including polarity, viscosity, and their ability to interact with the target species.
The results confirm the potential of DES as efficient, sustainable, and adaptable extractants for the treatment of polluted effluents. Moreover, this study opens up promising perspectives for improving the stability of these solvents, developing reuse cycles, and integrating them into hybrid remediation technologies at pilot or industrial scales.
